As I walked through the crowd, elegant music began to fill the hall. I spotted a table of food and made my approach. I took a glass of champagne and a plate of finger food. I found an empty table and with nice background music in the background, I began enjoying my food. A few minutes later, a young Asian girl walked over.

“Hello, Mr. Wong. My name is Hannah Ba. The professor wishes to know if you are free for a chat.”

I was surprised. “Oh! Miss Ba, may I know who want to speak to me?”

Hannah gave me a polite smile and pointed to a table a small distance away. Only one person was sitting there, with several tough-looking people keeping onlookers away. My surprise became shock. I knew who that was.

“If it is not too difficult for you, could you please move to the table?”

“Of course.”

I immediately answered. I had no idea why Professor Wang want to speak to me, but an invitation from one of the greatest minds alive is not something you turned down. I left my food and walked over with Hannah. I only hope my confusion wasn’t too evident. The men around the professor allowed me and Hannah through. Evidently, the rule about bodyguards not being allowed could be waived for some people. Hannah introduced me.

“Professor Wang, Mr. Tobias Wong is here.”

The professor remained seated but offer his hand. I shook it eagerly and took a seat opposite the professor.

“Professor Wang, this is an honor. I’ve admired your work for a long time.”

The professor gave me a smile and said, “The honor is all mine.”

I laughed at that. That was funny. It was also a way to deflect how uneasy I found the professor. The way his metallic mouth moved was creeping me out. On his part, the professor seems to enjoy the fact that I could laugh in his presence. He looked at me and said in a relaxed tone, “I mean it. It’s really nice to finally speak to you, Mr. Wong.”

“Why?” I couldn’t help but blurred out. To be honest, I was more than a little confused at this sudden encounter. I may be known in the battlesuit community, but the professor was on a completely different level. Almost everyone in the Solar System knew who he was. What would a man like him want with me?

“You asked me a hard question at my presentation, Mr. Wong. A question that is making me wonder about the validity of my research.”

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“I did?”

“Oh yes.” The professor saw my confusion and explained. “You see, I had never thought about capturing minds in my machines. I had always look at my research as a means of prolonging life, not imprisoning it.”

“That was never my intention. The guy who came after me asked that question. My idea for your research was never that.”

“Oh, what is your idea then?”

I stopped myself from launching into a speech. The desire to defend myself was instinctive but science was a battlefield and I had been dealing with people trying to take advantage of me for months. I was now a much more cautious man and my first reaction was to think about the other party’s interests. It wasn’t that I was suspicious of the professor; it was the simple fact that I gained nothing telling him my idea. The professor saw my reluctance and took it wrongly.

“Imagine my surprise when days after my presentation, there was another presentation that shook the scientific community. Then, imagine my shock when I discovered that the man who asked me a tough question at my presentation was one of the researchers in the second presentation.”

Oh! I suddenly realized why the professor wanted to meet me. He thought I was a ringer. He believed that I asked that question to trip him up. To make him look bad, so that our presentation would look better. To be fair, it did make a certain amount of sense from his perspective. I was the one who asked if his research could trap the consciousness of the person in a machine. An idea came to me; an idea so foreign I had to question if it belonged to me. However, I had nothing to lose, so I went for it.

“How about an exchange of ideas?”

“An exchange of ideas?”

I had surprised the professor and that gave me a boost. I said in a relaxed tone. “Professor, we are both men of science, but we are also businessmen. There’s no need to stand on ceremony. I can’t just tell you my idea for nothing right? So how about this; I’ll tell you my idea for your research, and you give me an idea about Mana Technology.”

Professor Wang gave me another creepy smile and said something surprising.

“You are a very interesting man, Mr. Wong.” I didn’t know how to respond to that, and the professor didn’t give me the time to respond. “Of course. Let’s do that.”

The professor somehow managed to give me a sincere look despite his cybernetics and continued. “I shall need some time to look over your research but tell me your idea about my research now and I shall give you my idea about Mana Technology in … two weeks. Is that fair?”

That was more than fair, and I began telling the professor about how I intend to use his research. When I came up with the idea of an operator possessing a battlesuit, and jumping from battlesuit to battlesuit, it was only a rough idea. I had polished it in the days since. I told the professor how amazing such an ability would be on the battlefield and how his research could change the field of battlesuits design forever. Of course, I also told him about the problems my idea would need to overcome.

My question about jammers and EMPs was just the tip of the iceberg. Battlesuit Designers would need to ensure the supercomputer installed in the battlesuit was well-protected. Operators must also ensure that they are always within range of another battlesuit to jump to, and there was also the cost-to-effectiveness ratio to consider. Is such technology even economically viable?

When I finished, Professor Wang quietly sat there. He was lost in his thoughts, so I silently waited for him to finish. Finally, he spoke in a thoughtful manner.